PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award Winner 2014

FREE ILHAM TOHTI

My ideals and the career path

I was born in 1969 into a Uighur family in Atush City, Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). I grew up in a government employee residential compound where Uighurs and Hans lived together. My grandfather’s generation was illiterate, but ...[Full text]

A Conference on Uyghur crisis and professor Ilham Tohti

Two days before announce the European “Václav Havel Human Rights Prize” 2019, a “Conference on Uyghur crisis and professor Ilham Tohti” held in Utrich, Netherland, organised by Ilham Tohti Institute … [Full]

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FREEDOM FOR ILHAM TOHTI !

An Urgent Communication to the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of ExpressionThe Special Rapporteur on Human Rights DefendersThe Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or PunishmentThe Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous PeoplesThe Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Regarding the Uighur Scholar Ilham Tohti Submitted by China Change, the Martin Ennals Foundation, and Ilham Tohti Initiative March 9, 2018 January 15, 2018, marked the 4th anniversary of the Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti’s sentencing to life in prison for peacefully speaking out for the economic, cultural, political and religious rights of the 10 million Uighur people inhabiting the northwestern region known as Xinjiang. In 2017, we have made two previous attempts to appeal to the UN Special Procedures but have not heard back. Once again, China Change in Washington, D. C., the Martin Ennals Foundation in Geneva, and the Ilham Tohti Initiative in Munich would like to bring the case and conditions of Ilham Tohti to the attention of the Special Rapporteurs listed above and the working group on arbitrary detention for an intervention. A Summary of the Case Ilham Tohti is the most renowned Uighur intellectual in the People’s Republic of China. For over two decades he has worked tirelessly to foster dialogue and understanding between Uighurs and Chinese over the present-day repressive religious, cultural and political conditions exercised against the Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic people living mostly in modern China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. As a result of his efforts he was arrested on January 15, 2014, and sentenced to life in prison in September the same year following a two-day show trial. […]

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US President Donald Trump and his envoy for religious freedom Samuel Brownback meet victims of religious persecution in the Oval Office, including Jewher Ilham on July 17, 2019.

Prize-Sakharov_ Jewher Ilham (left) receiving the award from Parliament President David Sassoli Ilham Tohti’s daughter Jewher Ilham accepted the 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on 18 December on behalf of her jailed father.

Ilham Tohti is a Uyghur economist serving a life sentence in China. He is a vocal advocate for the implementation of regional autonomy laws for the Uyghur people in China.

Enver Can, president of Ilham Tohti Institute, advocating for Uyghur Professor Ilham Tohti whom sentenced for life in prison by Chinese government for his campaign for equal rights before China’s law for his fellow Uyghur people.

Prize-Sakharov_ Jewher Ilham (left) receiving the award from Parliament President David Sassoli Ilham Tohti’s daughter Jewher Ilham accepted the 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on 18 December on behalf of her jailed father.

Sakharov Prize: Jailed Uighur academic Ilham Tohti wins award

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The Ilham Tohti Institute:

The Ilham Tohti Institute (ITI) named after the unjustly imprisoned Uyghur academic: Professor Ilham Tohti, that promotes friendship and harmony between all peoples living in China. The Ilham Tohti Institute (ITI) is multi-national entity is open to anyone regardless of nationality, ethnicity and religious affiliation, who agrees with Prof. Tohti’s ideals and shares his vision. The Ilham Tohti Institute …>>

Ilham Tohti – Write for Rights

My ideals and the career path I have chosen

On January 15, 2014, Chinese authorities arrested Ilham Tohti, a Uighur economics professor at the prestigious Nationality University in Beijing. Authorities formally charged him with separatism on February 25, and have so far denied him access to his attorney. For years … >>